Knowledge from the web. Putting Wikipedia to the test

On January 15, 2011 Wikipedia, the star project of the Web 2.0 Community, celebrated its 10th birthday. Wikipedia has made not only friends over this decade. As a source of knowledge Wikipedia soon became popular among users of the Internet. Educational institutions, however, take a more sceptical view of developments, as they have made students unwilling to conduct literature searches and carefully investigate in all directions available. Students rely 100% on knowledge stored in the Internet without critically observing or examining the information found. To the normal Internet user, however, the encyclopedia reflects the Web 2.0 model. A huge community is engaged in updating and extending knowledge in the database. Moreover, there are no restrictions on taking part in the project. Literally anybody may participate. The subject portals in the ''Technology'' section in Wikipedia contain a ''Nuclear Power'' column. This subject portal is outstanding because of its large number of entries. Information can be found about all areas of nuclear technology, although a real absence of bias is difficult to detect. According to reports, this category of information is characterized by regular skirmishes about the correctness and absence of bias in contents. (orig.)